Italy Reborn

The rebirth of Italy after the Second World War is one of the most impressive political transformations in modern European history. In 1945, post-fascist Italy was devastated by war, and its reputation in the international arena was nil. Yet by December 1955, when Italy was admitted to the United Nations, the nation had contested three acrimonious but free general elections, had a flourishing press, and was a leader in the rebuilding of Europe.

This is the dramatic story told by Italy Reborn. It charts the descent of Italy into Fascism, the scale of the wartime disaster, the Italian resistance to Nazi occupation, the horrors of civil war, and the establishment of the Republic in 1946. The Cold War divided, in 1947, the coalition of parties that had led the resistance to Fascism and Nazism.

The book’s final chapters deal with the consolidation of Italian democracy and with the statesmanship of Alcide De Gasperi, the premier from December 1945 to August 1953. The book persuasively argues that De Gasperi deserves more credit than he has typically been accorded for Italy’s postwar democratization and shows how Italian democracy was constructed on a sound foundation—which is why it has been able to survive its many postwar crises.

Largely based on contemporary Italian sources, Italy Reborn is both an original account of this crucial period in Italian history and a remarkable example of how democracies are made.

"An eloquent and readable book that needed to be written. Perhaps for the first time, in a full-length English-language volume, many lazy stereotypes about 20th century Italy are successfully challenged." -- John Mccourt - Irish Times
"In this wise and penetrating book, Mark Gilbert demolishes the accepted view of postwar Italy as perpetually teetering on the edge of disaster and shows rather how it moved from the catastrophes of fascism and abject defeat in the Second World War to become a robust democracy which has lessons for the rest of us. A fascinating story wonderfully told." -- Margaret MacMillan, Emeritus Professor of International History, University of Oxford
"Writing with great flare, Gilbert tells the epic tale of Italy’s emergence from its darkest days under Fascism to its postwar democratic success. There is no better way to understand where Italy has come from than to read Italy Reborn." -- David I. Kertzer, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Pope and Mussolini
"This is an important book that, for the first time in the English language, provides a thoroughly researched and balanced overview of Italy’s transition from fascism to democracy. Well written, rigorous and engaging, Mark Gilbert’s work is distinguished from others on this critical period in Italy’s history by his in-depth account, based on primary sources, of Christian Democrat leader Alcide De Gasperi’s decisive role in the country’s postwar democratization. Under his leadership, Italy was able to pursue a democratic path by aligning itself with the Western bloc, notwithstanding the Soviet-linked Communist Party’s (PCI) growing influence in the early years of the Cold War." -- Elena Aga Rossi, professor of contemporary history, Scuola Nazionale dell’Amministrazione in Rome; author of Stalin and Togliatti: Italy and the Origins of the Cold War
"A detailed, nuanced work that sheds new light on a crucial era in Italian history." -- Kirkus Reviews
"He starts with a very lucid, clear, surprising, and counter-intuitive argument, and sticks to it throughout. Though his case pounds along with sustained force, it is never dull or repetitive or anything other than keenly coherent. Reading Italy Reborn is not like being stuck with an obsessive or a preacher. Rather this is an ideal tutorial, a lesson very well and entertainingly taught… It’s very contorted material, but it very seldom feels like that. It’s very human and surprisingly often even funny. It’s a great book." -- Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth

Mark Gilbert was educated at Durham University and the University of Wales. He has taught at Dickinson College, the University of Bath, the University of Trento, and SAIS Europe, the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he is C. Grove Haines Professor of History. In 2018, he chaired the international jury of the Cundill Prize for History. He is associate editor of the Journal of Modern Italian Studies.

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